ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS i6i

miserable beings that walked the earth. . . . Without enjoyment, without pleasure, without hope, and without sympathy with the world." i^ But the unfailing remedy, for those who will but try it, is the absolute control of thought. Never let the mind dwell upon anything disagreeable — turn it to something else." "Great and heroic efTort was necessary at first and for a long time." But " with a proper discipline of oneself in this way, ever keeping the passions in perfect subjection, content- ment and happiness are attainable by all." i^ i do not read that he ever attained them, but others may by fol- lowing his precepts. He fought for them, at any rate.

Stoical self-control was not his only refuge. He had one higher — God. In his youth he declined to be edu- cated for the ministry and I do not think he was ever consistendy satisfied as to speculative religion. But he seems to have had a keen and mighty sense of the divine in spiritual things and in his hours of agony he seeks solace there and finds it. He devotes a portion of every day to communion with God in prayer and gets from it comfort in his anguish, light in the valley of dark shadows, and the growth of a kindlier, sweeter temper towards his fellow-men.^^ In old age, in sickness, in soli- tude, in prison, he sums up thus the mighty help that God has been to him : " That the Lord is a strong hold in the day of trouble I know. But for his sustaining grace, I should have been crushed in body and soul long ere this." is

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